OVERVIEW

This article reports the experience of Kathy Rhodes, a 13-year psychiatric nurse, who has admitted many teenagers with emotional and behavioral problems including depression, suicide, and homicide. According to this director of nurses for behavioral services at Tennessee Christian Medical Center, things get worse at Halloween:

Kids are going out on the edge more in general and especially during this time of year. Rolling yards of toilet paper and soaping windows used to be enough to give them some excitement. Today it takes more and more extreme behaviors to feel the thrill.

In some of this Rhodes sees indications of teenagers dabbling in the occult: " ‘You see cases of self-mutilation, particularly newcomers to the occult who have participated in some kind of initiation.’ "

Dr. Joseph Mawhinney of San Diego thinks the dark themes of Halloween may unmask behavioral problems. This member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council of Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry believes a lack of parental supervision may also be a factor:

As a general pattern, there has been an increase in hospital admissions around Halloween, particularly over the past 10 years. At Halloween, a lot of parents feel their kids need an opportunity to be free and do their own thing. The influence of Halloween itself can be a mild form of mischief and the freedom to loosen up a little...but in the extreme it may mean freedom to be uncontrolled and influenced by the bizarre. It can be dangerous...

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Do you see changes in Halloween...and in the behavior of children and adolescents around this holiday?
2. Do kids need a time to "loosen up a bit" and to let off steam?
3. Instances of bizarre and even violent occult behavior among teenagers as well as the fact that the extent of Satanism and the occult has been exaggerated have both been demonstrated. How do you see adolescent involvement in the occult in your area?
4. What are you suggestions for the celebration of Halloween as a secular holiday?

IMPLICATIONS

1. What is true in one region or area may not be so in another. Youth leaders and those who work with young people should be aware of what goes on in "other compartments" of a teenager’s life.
2. Teenagers have a need to have fun, experience different kinds of excitement, and experiment with different identities. They need also be aware and protect themselves from extreme and risky behaviors.
3. Incidents of teenage dabbling in the occult provide teachable opportunities to discuss various kinds of dangerous beliefs and practices.

Dean Borgman cCYS